


Red Velvet-lations

by c0cunt



Series: Four Seasons and Side Pieces [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 10:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4662435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren attempts to bake a cake.  Jean shares a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Velvet-lations

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to be punny with the title (get it, revelations, eh?).

 

   Jean's favorite cake was red velvet. For no other reason than because the food dye would make his entire mouth red, instead of just his bottom lip. Eren learned this pretty quickly, just like how he learned that making cakes and cookies and things like that was calming to Jean in a way that didn't make sense to him at all. Baking was chemistry to Eren, and even if he was good at balancing out equations on paper, he was terrible at the practical side. Which is how Eren ended up, at 2am no less, with a disaster in his kitchen, and a horrible excuse for a cake that was harder than a hockey puck.

 

   It had all started out with good intentions at least. Eren wanted to apologize to Jean for accidentally busting his lip the day before, and well, apologies weren't strong points for either of them. Not that Jean was upset with Eren about a busted lip. But he felt immensely guilty, so Eren had tried to make him an apology cake. God, did he try. Eren fell asleep while waiting for it to bake, and hadn't realized the oven was at a higher temperature than what he should've used, so now there was this disaster. Plus, Eren wasn't exactly neat when it came to making anything, which is why Jean had banished him from the kitchen after their first attempt to make something together. So now Eren was left staring at the wreckage forlornly, as Mikasa finally made herself known to the room by clearing her throat quietly.

 

   "AHHH! Oh, Mika, shit, sorry," Eren's startled shout immediately become a whisper, whipping around to see her leaning against the door jam. He still felt like shit for how he had yelled at her three years ago, even if Mikasa had gotten over it a while ago. Embarrassed at the mess he'd been making, Eren made to start piling dishes into the sink, only for the sink to overflow with dishes and soapy water. Christ, he just couldn't look good compared to Mikasa.

 

   "It's 2am and we both know you can't cook. What on earth are you doing?" Mikasa asked, quirking an eyebrow slightly as Eren blushed. Apparently she had missed a lot of things in her brother's life, since she had no clue what he was doing or why. She wasn't even sure if he even had any friends...That thought made her sad, but it was his choice, and she was going to respect it. Sighing heavily, Mikasa took some of the dishes that were clutched in Eren's hands, turning on the hot water to begin clean up with him, waiting for his response. Eren picked up a dish rag, twisting it anxiously in his hands before speaking.

 

   "I...I was trying to make a cake..." He muttered, continuing too lowly for Mikasa to hear over the splash of the water. So she just cocked her head to the side, and waited for Eren to continue or repeat himself. "To apologize..." The words pulled like molasses out of Eren's unwilling mouth, and he couldn't meet Mikasa's gaze as she handed him dishes to dry. "...For hitting Jean yesterday..." He finished, returning the pan to the cabinet, still not looking at Mikasa, who was squinting at him suspiciously.

 

   Of course, Mikasa had heard about the fight Eren had gotten into yesterday, and after she had poked around she had also known that the fight had been about Jean. She had eyes and ears all around the school, and there were several people who had been around to watch the fight unfold. Eren had thrown the first punch at Thomas, according to Mina, because Thomas and his buddies had been throwing slurs at Jean's shitty performance in English that morning. Mina had also told Mikasa that Jean had stopped Eren, and they had left together (backed up with a short video that Mina had managed to take, showing Eren bending down to check on Jean's bloody lip, and then the two of them leaving the small field together). The video had only proven a sneaking suspicion that she had had for a while. Now to find out if it was true or not.

 

   "Do you like Jean?" Mikasa tried to ask casually, passing a cleaned glass to Eren. He spluttered, barely getting a grip on the glass, and then clutching it to his chest with wide eyes. She turned off the tap, and turned to face him fully, keeping her face as neutral as possible. The blush on Eren's face was brighter now, as he avoided her gaze. The silence was answer enough, and his actions in the past had proved it before.

 

   "Do you think he likes you?" Was her second question, and this one was more important to her. Watching Eren twist the dish rag more and more tightly, and almost losing his grip on the glass, Mikasa tried to keep up the neutral look as his head slowly shook. Her lips twisted into a frown, before taking the glass out of Eren's hands before he broke it. As she returned the glass to the cabinet it belonged to, Eren let out a long, shakey sigh as he buried his face in his hands.

 

   "He's leaving in August for college, so it's not like it matters," Eren mumbled, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes, unwilling to get emotional over that again. They'd never said they were going to go to the same college, but Eren had hoped they would, until Jean had shown his acceptance letter to the same university that his friends in Florida were all going to. So Eren would be stuck in New York, and Jean would be surrounded by his old friends. He shook his head again, and shared a disparing look with Mikasa, who shrugged at him as she returned to the dishes in the sink. It was going to be a long, silent night of cleaning up.

 

* * *

 

 

   Eren still felt terrible about the fight, especially when he saw Jean the night after the attempted cake. His lip was swollen, and he seemed to unconsciously run his tongue over the split, and it was driving Eren insane reminding him not to touch it. Jean would pout each time Eren reminded him, but would obediently leave his lip alone for a few seconds, before going right back to it. Jean was nervous, Eren realized, as he fidgeted the entire walk to the school. Their first final was in two hours, their English final, and maybe Eren should have felt a little more invested in the exam, but all he could wonder about was why Jean was so anxious when he was normally the better test taker out of the pair.

 

   Of course Eren finished sooner, because he didn't care at this point. He'd already gotten his acceptance letter, he was definitely going to the local SUNY school, so he didn't feel the need to read over his answers like he normally would have. Though Eren did feel a bit satisfied that Thomas appeared to look much worse after their fight, as they both had turned in their exams at the same time. Jean glanced up as Eren walked past his desk, nodding at him. The wound on his lip had reopened, and Eren's guilt returned full force. Waiting for Jean after the exam was a nightmare, since he'd left everything aside from a pen and his cell phone at home (or at Jean's place). It must've been another hour or so before Jean rejoined him, still worrying at his lip.

 

   "Dude, it's never gonna heal if you keep chewing at it," Eren chided, reaching out to dab at his lip with a tissue instinctively, before catching himself and tossing the tissue at Jean. Jean fumbled for the tissue for several seconds, not actually catching it as it floated to the floor. Eren almost doubled over with laughter, shutting up immediately as Jean turned sharply and started walking away. Eren was still huffing out tiny laughs as he joined him, watching Jean swipe haphazardly at his lip. They were halfway to Jean's house before either of them spoke again.

 

   "I heard that Thomas was talking shit about English." Jean said flatly, eyes trained to the ground, worrying at his lip once more. Eren shoved his hands into his pockets, noncommittedly humming. "Heard that Thomas was talking shit about me in English," Jean continued, glancing quickly at Eren before returning his eyes to the ground. Another hum from Eren. Silence between the two of them. They were approaching Jean's front steps by the time Jean continued.

 

   "He wasn't wrong." Eren froze at those words, watching Jean carefully, who was digging around in his pocket for his key. "But he wasn't right either," Jean added, successfully wrangling the key out and shoving it into the lock. He threw the door open, chewing on his lip as he headed for the kitchen, not waiting for Eren to follow. On autopilot, Eren followed, closing the door as his mind raced with Jean's words.

 

   Not straight, but not gay? Isn't there a word for that? Why had Jean decided to tell him now? Was he trying to tell him something? Eren huffed slightly at his own thoughts, they always seemed to turn back to how it affected him. Jean was sharing something personal with him, that he would bet money on him not sharing with more than a handful of other people. Almost as personal as him sharing his thing with baking, honestly. Eren knew that only his mother and his friend Marco knew how soothing baking was to him, and if he couldn't share that with his other friends, it didn't seem possible that he would share a facet of himself that was this personal with his other friends.

 

   Eren leaned against Jean's counter, watching as Jean grabbed up coconut and pecans from their cabinet. Jean stopped when he noticed Eren watching, savaging his lip once more. "Quit chewing on that damn lip, it's never gonna heal if you keep at it like that," Eren laughed, shaking his head slightly. Jean stopped immediately as he returned to measuring out ingredients for the apology cookies. Eren recognized what they would be just from how much was measured out of all his ingredients.

 

   "Making apologies?" Eren asked casually, fiddling with a loose thread on his shirt's hemline. A nod from Jean. "What're you apologizing for?" Eren prodded, pulling the thread out of his shirt with a quiet ripping noise. A loose shrug from Jean, diligently mixing his ingredients together. More silence, only interrupted with the muted quiet of preparing the cookies. Eren doesn't know what he should do; should he tell Jean everything's alright? Or should he wait for Jean to bring it up again? Unconsciously, Eren starts chewing on his own lip, and Jean catches him doing so with a slight smile.

 

   "Stop chewing on your lip," Jean mimicked, snickering slightly as Eren jumped. Eren threw him a lopsided grin, holding his hands up guiltily. Jean shook his head as he shoved the cookie tray into the oven, finally turning back to Eren. "So you aren't...Upset?" Jean said slowly, watching Eren carefully for any sign of his discomfort.

 

   "Why would I be upset?" Eren asked, genuinely surprised by the question. Had Eren seemed like he was upset when Jean said it? A little confused, yeah, but not upset. There wasn't any reason for him to be upset. Eren shook his head, baffled by the idea of being upset. "If anything," Eren began slowly, "I'm kinda glad you trust me enough to tell me."

 

   Jean's eyes lit up, even as his lower lip disappeared underneath his teeth again. Instead of continuing the conversation, Jean hid behind the small stack of items that needed to be cleaned. Scrubbing fiercely, Jean didn't even realize that Eren was next to him until he was done rinsing suds off of the measuring cup in his hands, almost hitting the ceiling with how high he jumped in surprise.

 

Eren just smiled gently. "You wash, I'll dry." A nod. Smiles. They were okay. Nothing had changed.


End file.
